Sometimes you have to lose your balance in order to find it.

Yoga: Some like it hot

I LOVE hot yoga. I don’t do it all the time, but each time I get the chance it never ceases to amaze me just how much sweat I am capable of producing.

After my 8 mile run yesterday in the drizzly cold weather, nothing sounded more appealing today than stretching out my poor muscles in a heated room. I bought a Groupon for a pass to Prana Power Yoga the other week, and this was my second time taking advantage of that. I know I’ve mentioned this on the blog before, but Prana is definitely one of my favorite yoga studios in the Boston area (there are 3 studios in Boston- I’ve only been to the Cambridge location). The class was hot, and made even hotter by the fact that there was 70+ other people in the room sweating along with me. I don’t love how Prana classes are so crowded, all those crazy Groupon people (ie me) probably don’t help the already very popular studio. After class though, you are way to out-of-it to realize there are so many other (smelly,wet) people around you. I walk through the next hour after class in a completely blissful state of unawareness. Or maybe it’s hyper-awareness? Regardless, it’s amazing. So good you probably shouldn’t be able to drive a car and/or operate heavy machinery good.

Normally when you tell people you do hot yoga, Bikram comes to mind. I’ve done Bikram, and it is intense. I like the heat, and don’t mind the pose sequence (which is always the same-so if you don’t like repetition this would probably not be for you).

Do this. Sweat. Repeat.

What I don’t like so much is the bootcamp style. My first class they told us that we weren’t to leave the room for any reason, it didn’t matter if we had to go to the bathroom, throw-up, or pass out, we just couldn’t leave. Of course that left me feeling like I had to do all 3 of those things, simultaneously (I’m happy to report I didn’t, although I’m sure that would have made for an interesting post).

The classes there are hotter, but I wouldn’t say you sweat more than Prana- I don’t think that’s possible. The deal breaker for me with Bikram, was the smell. The studio is carpeted, with the sweatiest carpet you could imagine, and as a result it smells like feet. Prana does not smell like feet, therefore, Prana wins in my book.

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6 responses

I’ve never done Bikram although a lot of my friends swear by it. But carpeted room!? You must have gone to the wrong place. My yoga of choice, always, is kundalini. BTW, we missed you at the March babies pub crawl!

I’ll have to try Kundalini! And I can’t believe I missed the pub crawl… I give credit to all of you living out of state who made it! That shows some serious commitment, to pub crawls AND babies. I like that.

I love hot yoga! I hear Tree Top in Gloucester is great but I usually goto empower in beverly if I actually goto a class. I mostly practice at home, with my DVD as a guide. I love it! Next time your in town let me know and we will hit up a class!